Ask HN: Best static website cloning tool?

by asynchronousx on 4/16/2025, 1:48:02 AM with 2 comments
Hey HN, I’m hoping to make a static preview of a dynamic web app I have, so people can view it with some data and not have all the data requests empty.

Looking through the available website clone options, none of them seem able to do all the things I want, namely: 1. Clone all the routes and resources for the site, rewriting the routes to work with the local copy 2. Let the data requests come back filled, then copy it as a static dataset for that component or page’s request.

Any tool suggestions out there?

  • by contingencies on 4/16/2025, 2:01:19 AM

    For 1 you can use wget -R --mirror https://site.com (anyway man wget will get you there)

    For 2 I'm unaware of a tool. Some combination of a browser, browser plugin and/or proxy would be able to do it theoretically, but there's so many JS edge cases it's unlikely to work everywhere. Something slightly custom may be required.

    PS. With the laser engraving, fiber requires a cooling system which typically requires maintenance. Also, you generally require compressed dehydrated air at a minimum. Therefore, you're looking at a much more expensive system in aggregate.